


What Is past, Is Gone

by Kat_Herondale



Series: Journey on through the Night [1]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Infinity Gems, basically a story where Peggy and Steve are star-crossed lovers, because even if the musical has nothing to do with this the songs are still beautiful, i call them stones in this though, natasha ships them because she's always trying to get a date for steve, peggy and steve are so cute though, probably update once or twice a week depending on how fast i can make sure everything looks good, title from a les mis song, whatever, working on editing now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-09 13:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3251366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Herondale/pseuds/Kat_Herondale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peggy Carter never expected she'd end up time traveling.<br/>She had always maintained hope that Steve was still alive, though she never thought she would see him again.<br/>However, she wouldn't have minded staying out of a plot to kill the Mad Titan. These kinds of things never go well.</p><p>In which, Peggy ended up in the future due to something that should have been one of Howard's inventions. She met Steve again and Natasha totally ships them. She went to Asgard and received the task to kill Thanos. And is nearly assassinated by someone who should have been her friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. And so It Begins

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited to finally be able to post this! I originally planned to get this to a large word count, though I quickly realized It would be hard for me and I wasn't happy with dragging this story out. 
> 
> I first got the idea when Peggy pulled the bomb out of the safe in the first episode and for five minutes I got really excited because I thought they were introducing another Infinity Stone. And it kinda turned into this. I'm writing this with the hopes that if people want, I will write a bunch of modern day Steggy ficlets and then into a final story. I'll go by feedback on how my plans will go.
> 
> There's fluff in the beginning, but not smut. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

 

It should have been a simple retrieval mission to get back the paper with the chemical formula Howard had been robbed of. But of course when Peggy tried the spray Jarvis instructed her on how to make, it didn't work. The golden orb only glowed a little brighter. There had been a noise, something that sounded almost like a gun shot, two men had broken into her apartment and killed on of her only friends. She had to fight for her life after that.

After calling Jarvis, Peggy was off to where he was staying, one night wouldn't do any harm and she needed his help to disable the bomb. That wasn't something she would have thought before this.

Jarvis was extremely upset that she showed up in the middle of the night like that. But he helped her by gathering all the materials needed. The same stuff Peggy had gotten, but it wouldn't hurt to try twice. Peggy handed Jarvis her perfume bottle to use and after he cleaned it out, he tried the same thing that she did. Golden tendrils blossomed around it, threatening to climb up her arm. Peggy grabbed the top part of it, careful not to touch any of the glowing bits. Jarvis tried again. He frowned when it didn't work. He set the spray aside and was preparing to contact Howard when he heard a voice call him.

“I'll be right back, Agent Carter. My wife is calling,” Jarvis ducked his head as he ran out of the room.

“I'm sure you will be,” Peggy muttered to herself.

She reached out and grabbed the perfume bottle. This one little bomb should not be giving her this much trouble. If there was an entire factory making these like what she suspected, then it would be a lot harder to save Howard from treason than she first thought.

The bomb slipped out of her hands and she caught it before it could fall to the floor. She wasn't sure how, but her hand brushed against the golden. She really hoped there weren't anymore of these bombs.

The entire room exploded in gold. Everything seemed to be tearing itself apart. Peggy was frozen, unable to move. All she needed to do was grab it's container and wrap it around to contain the bomb's blast. Her hand snaked downwards and in one jerky movement she managed to contain it, the gold flaking back to it's home, leaving everything where it should be.

“Well,” Jarvis said as he reappeared in the doorway. Peggy jumped in surprise, nearly dropping the orb.

Peggy turned around to face him. She bit back a reply, not in the mood to be dealing with the butler anymore. Her head hurt badly, a throbbing in her temples that hadn't been there a moment before.

And then he disappeared. In fact, the entire kitchen did. The world swirled around her in the same color gold as the orb. She clutched it in her hand, afraid to drop it. If she did, according to what Howard said, it would blow up the entire building.

She took a deep breath and tried to stand up. She couldn't help but think about Steve for a moment. Because what if something had happened and she did manage to trigger it. Her last thoughts didn't want to be about Howard.

 

* * *

 

Peggy was rolling down a hill, clumps of grass manged their way into her mouth as she tumbled. She grabbed at anything and everything, trying to get a handhold to stop her free fall(free roll?). Someone shouted something and they grabbed Peggy off the ground. The momentum nearly had them both rolling. Someone laughed and Peggy spun around as she wobbled to her feet, fully prepared to fight her way out of this.

The man who had helped her, had his hair pulled back into a ponytail. And a plaid shirt on and some jeans? Those weren't anyway in style. Only the workers on the docks tended to wear those. He stared at her, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards as he waited for a reply.

“If it wasn't for me you would have kept rolling down the hill into the duck pond,” he grinned at her, expecting for her to praise him.

Peggy tucked the orb into her purse. The man didn't even seem to notice as he stared at her breasts. Bile rose in her throat. Behind him were sleek large buildings, the likes of which she'd never seen before. They were mostly hidden by trees so Peggy returned her attention to the man.

“I could have handled myself,” she spun around only to run into the chest of another man. This one was much burlier than the first man. He wrapped his arms around Peggy and pulled her into a hug. She brought her knee up and it connected with his groin. He fell backwards, yelping in pain. His voice rose quite high as he called her a bitch.

She glanced at the other man. She smoothed down her skirt while the first man lunged at her. She wasn't in the mood to cause a scene so she waited for him to come a little closer.

Her fist connected with his jaw and he dropped to the ground, out cold.

Peggy stepped over his crumpled body and glanced down at the pond she would have fallen into.

“I much prefer getting wet to having to deal with the likes of you,” she said to the second man, who was only slightly aware.  
  
The second man's eyes were nearly bulging out of his head as he clutched at his crotch.

Someone was filming this, another man stood off to the side. He was in the same jeans as the others. His camera was much smaller than anything Peggy had seen before. But she still ducked it and quickly hurried off. She ignored the small girl staring up at her in awe. The girl wasn't wearing a dress or skirt, she had on shorts and streaks of bright blue eyeshadow on her face, something that would not be aloud by any parents.

 

Peggy walked until she was out of the strip of land. She soon realized she was in Central Park. The buildings must have been the rest of New York. It was a much different skyline than what she remembered. She wondered belatedly if that bomb had killed her and this was her heaven. Destroying men like that was quite fun though she preferred it when there weren't people filming.

There were clusters of people in the park. Each one varied in age. There were some girls who appeared to be only slightly younger than Peggy that she took notice of. Perhaps because they were staring at her. But everyone was. It hadn't taken much for her to notice that her clothing was no longer in style and in order to blend in easily she'd have to figure out what everyone else was wearing. The tallest stared at Peggy, her eyebrows were drawn on and her hair straight and to her waist. Peggy would copy this girl's outfit, though perhaps not the eyebrows in order to blend in. Those wouldn't suit her. She turned to her friend, a short small girl with bright red hair, and whispered something. They both laughed as they eyed Peggy critically.

“This isn't drama club.” Peggy heard one of them say. “What's with the costume?”

Peggy kept walking until she made it onto the street. Her legs were sore by then and she had only checked to make sure she still had that bomb in her purse nearly twenty times. Her lipstick and a few other odds and ends were in there. She didn't have much cash on her, only a dollar or two. Enough to buy one meal. She'd have to steal the clothing then. She highly doubted she'd run into any kind donors.

The sun was setting, though that didn't seem to get this strange New York to calm down, in fact it seemed like even more people were out. Police were putting up metal barriers and herding crowds into it like sheep. Peggy just barely missed being pushed into one. The cop stared at her and muttered something.

“Aren't you cold?” A woman asked as she appeared behind Peggy.

She hadn't thought about how cold it was until then. Her brisk walk across New York had kept her quite warm, though now it was dark and her adrenaline was quickly fading away.

“I suppose so,” she said. The crowds nearly shoved her away as a new batch of people got to enter. Many were screaming excitedly and practically trampled her. The woman grinned and pulled Peggy towards her. She noticed that the woman also had on a ball dress like what Peggy wore, though hers wasn't covered in mud.

“Well, let's head over to that party. It should be warm in there. How far did you come? Your dress sure is pretty.”  
  
The woman faked a British accent through most of her speech and then started laughing because apparently that was hilarious. She looked like one of the girls from the dance Peggy had went to to retrieve the bomb. Ahead of them was someone searching bags. The woman quickly veered off, which was quite questionable, and led them into a place called _Ruby Tuesday's._

 

“God,” The woman breathed. She sounded American now. “It looks like we stepped back in time.”  
  
“What year is it?” Peggy asked casually. She faked a nod in agreement to what the woman was saying. The place seemed exactly like somewhere she would have went out dancing with Steve. If they had ever gotten that chance.

“Have you already been drinking?” The woman burst into laughter. Peggy frowned and looked away as her new friend led her farther inside. “We're ringing in the new year! 2015!”  
  
Peggy was more than a little surprised. Her mouth dropped open and she was about to ask the woman more questions but she had disappeared into the mass of wiggling bodies. She glanced up at a flashing sign, words flew by faster than Peggy expected but she managed to see this much: _Ring The New Year In With Captain America!!!_ _Iron Man!!! Thor!!!_ _Meet 'N Greet With The Avengers At Seven!!!_

Peggy couldn't even be in the future without being reminded of Steve. She wondered if it was an impersonator or if someone had taken up the mantle of Captain America.

She wasn't sure what time it was now since her watch was off, from the apparent time travel. Peggy had never thought about time travel much, she assumed it wasn't possible and Howard had never had interest in inventing something like that. Time travel was really only a concept used in those dime Sci-fi books Sargent Barnes read sometimes.

It was surreal as she walked through the mess of people who acted like this was all make believe with their fancy dresses that were much too short to be worn back then and the men who tried to grab at Peggy's ass several times. She slapped each hand away as she made it to where the Meet 'N Greet was. It must have been past seven since the line was already halfway through the club. She moved to where there were people crowding around the table and tried to push past them. There were five people at the table. Some seemed generally happy to be meeting their fans with smiles and waves(the man with the strange facial hair and sunglasses and the one with blonde hair falling around his face) to trying to scare people away(the only girl on the panel and a blonde man who was cradling a bow).

The fake Captain America was somewhere in the middle of those emotions. He would fake a smile and laugh at people's jokes, though it seemed strained. Just like how her Steve would have acted. He even looked a lot like Steve. Though it was possible that Howard had started looking for Steve, just like he promised her. And here he was on New Year's Eve with a bunch of new friends and Peggy was probably dead. Poor, possibly fake Steve, he didn't even seem happy here.

Steve, no she'd think of him as Captain America to distance herself, looked up at the crowds, his eyes narrowing at the area Peggy was in. He tapped the woman on the arm and said something to her. She shook her head, red curls bobbing up and down as she frowned at him.

He seemed disappointed but went back to signing autographs. Peggy's heart sank. If this really was her Steve, he would have come after her. Or at least that's what she liked to imagine. But whatever, Peggy didn't need this fake Captain America. She would make it home by herself.

She liked to think that if Steve had survived the plane crash, then they would have dated and they both would have mourned Bucky together. Though she never would have met Colleen and her friend would still have been alive. She trembled slightly as she slide back into the crowd. A forties tune played in the background and people began swaying. Times had changed and Peggy wondered how much exactly had changed. She was surprised at how well she was taking this, anyone else would have been close to tears with this twist. She was proud of herself.

Peggy had a long list of things she needed to get for the night and she didn't want to stay at this party any longer, though this was the best cover up for her at this point because everyone was actively trying to seem like they were in the forties.

She weaved her way through the crowd, waiting for a man to say something rude to a girl he was dancing with. She needed money and she would steal the wallet of the first man who upset her. She would then get out of there and buy as much as she could before ditching the wallet.

And with all her thoughts of pick pocketing, she couldn't help but reach in her purse to make sure the not-bomb was still there. She was drawn to it and took comfort in the warmth she felt when her hand brushed against the case.

She spotted a man who had grabbed a blonde by the hair and roughly whispered in her ear. A few around the pair noticed and looked away quickly, going back to their own dancing. The blonde's eyes glistened and she tried to get away but the man pulled her closer.

Peggy slide towards them and ignored the man who tried to grab her ass. She had more important things to worry about. She slide up to the man and noticed the bulge in his suit jacket pocket. She shimmied up against him and swallowed bile down as she copied the other dance moves. The man grinned down at her and Peggy pressed both her hands at him. She glanced at the blonde girl and her eye lid twitched just enough to be considered a wink. The girl moved away, her face falling since she lost her dancing partner. She reached down and grabbed the man's wallet. It was brimming with dollar bills. He seemed drunk and barely noticed when she slide away, tucking the wallet in her purse as she went.

She leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath. Someone patted her shoulder and the woman who had led her to this party in the first place was there, her large round eyes stared up at her.

“Hi,” she grinned, pleased to see Peggy again. “Are you having fun? I never mentioned my name and you were my plus one! I'm Jenna, nice to meet you!”  
  
Peggy was astonished at the fact that this Jenna girl had invited her as her guest. It wasn't even one of the strangest things that happened today. She supposed she had gotten lucky that she met Jenna and got to scope out New York a little more and piece things together.

“Sharron,” Peggy lied smoothly and extended her hand. Picking the name was easy for her, she had memorized the most common female names after learning she had the chance to go undercover. Though she never got invited to them because she was a woman, and maybe that's why Peggy had accepted Howard's offer to clear him of treason. She was just bored doing office work.

Jenna brightened. Her back straightened, she was still nearly a head shorter than Peggy, and both were in heels. Jenna shook Peggy's hand and she was practically vibrating from excitement.

“I'm sorry, it's just usually I'm excluded at these dances 'cause Daddy's richer than a lot of these people and they're jealous. And that I have a Doctorate. They hate that too... Sorry! I feel like I'm bragging.”  
  
Jenna made a weird face that involved sticking her tongue out, winking and giving Peggy a thumbs up at the same time. Peggy was impressed about the Doctorate. Those were hard work and something not many woman did. She wondered if Jenna had made the papers. The woman in her day (what a strange way to think of things) had only ever made the paper with how quickly they found a husband or how long it had taken them, or trivial things like new fashion trends.

“That's amazing,” Peggy breathed.

“Yeah, most people mooch off their parents money. I like to imagine I'm better than that, though I did get my tickets from my parents. I was just happy to be in the same room as the Avengers!”

“Who exactly are these Avengers?” Peggy asked. She shifted as someone barreled into the wall next to her. They were already drunk.

Jenna's mouth dropped open in shock. “The Chitauri invasion?! Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Captain Hottie, Hawkeye and the amazing Black Widow that saved us from the terrible Loki with his stupid aliens and the Tesseract,” Jenna leaned closer, her breath hot in Peggy's ear. She wondered if Jenna was a little drunk at the moment. “The only reason I know all this is because Daddy saved all the files before Iron Man tried to get the more classified ones off the internet.”

Peggy had no idea what an internet was, so she just nodded, faked a smile and laughed. “I don't know how I missed that!”  
  
It must have been too forced because Jenna eyed her for a moment before she started grinning again too. She brushed brown hair from her face and took out a pen and wrote a phone number slightly above Peggy's wrist, just at the point where it wouldn't wash off easily unless she scrubbed at it.

“Call me sometime. Though I bet we'll be seeing each other again.”  
  
“Of course,” Peggy smiled and watched Jenna disappear back into the crowds. It was a little overwhelming.

She tried not to dwell on the last thing Jenna said to her. Perhaps her brain was permanently wired into paranoia from all her time in the war. Though the woman seemed harmless, she still sent chills down her back. Perhaps it was the mention of the Tesseract, something that had been lost on the plane with Steve.

She glanced up as the crowd parted slightly for a couple to break through. It was Captain America, who was smiling and waving at all these people despite the stress lines around his eyes. The red-head was on his arm. She glared at everyone and it made even Peggy want to flinch away from her gaze. If it wasn't for that glare they probably would have still been on the other side of the crowd.

Peggy ducked her head and started walking briskly to the nearest exit. She had forgotten she was on the second floor, but by that point she was on the balcony. She wasn't sure if Captain America had followed her. Though when she felt warm air on her back she was sure it was him. She wished there weren't all these couples making out. She much preferred to have to beat up Captain America and make a getaway without any witnesses.

Peggy spun around as she reached the balcony. The palms of her hands were pressed against the metal railing. She was fully prepared to push against it as a way to propel herself at this fake Captain America. He had at least thirty pounds of muscle on her. She didn't know if she could win this fight with brute force. He looked like Steve though, even his shoulder to waist ratio was nearly as exact as Peggy remembered.

“Peggy?” He asked, his voice cracked slightly.

It sounded like Steve. But there was no way. This wasn't Steve. This wasn't Steve. _This wasn't Steve!_

“How are you here, Peg? I don't understand.”

Oh God. _T_ _his was Steve._ Peggy sucked in a breath and held it. She didn't know what to say. Because how could she explain what had happened to her when she didn't know herself. She had theories, but not all the facts.

“I wish I knew,” she paused, nearly using his name. But she couldn't trust her voice to not crack when she said his name.

He had a different uniform than during the war. This one had darker hues, though it maintained the stars. It looked more practical while still stating who he was.

“How do I know it's really you, Peggy?”   
  
She wished he'd stop using her name. It made her feel breathless, like one of those girls who would fall over themselves trying to get to the most becoming man and they acknowledge their presence after a year. That had happened with Peggy's older sister. She was dead now. Or well she was dead in '46. Peggy's entire family was probably dead in the year 2015. Oh, God...

“You couldn't possibly be Steve,” she shot back, her voice growing softer. “He died quite a long time ago if it's really 2015.”

Steve glanced at one of the three other couples who had stopped making out and were listening intently. Their eyes were glazed over. Peggy was glad they wouldn't remember this in the morning.

He shifted awkwardly. “There's a section for just the Avengers in the back. It's private. No cameras or anything. We can quiz each other there.”  


	2. Chapter 2

 

Peggy wasn't sure why she followed him past the velvet rope and into a small area with velvet curtains that she had noticed earlier when Jenna led her to the second floor that contained the dance floor. This velvet section was on the first floor, it was so much quieter down here. Steve was right about private.

There was a table with seven chairs and a nice white table cloth and candles. In the corner was a man on the floor, brown curls fell into his face, blocking most of it, his arms were crossed over his chest, he seemed like a child who didn't want to be somewhere. Steve nodded towards the chairs, signaling Peggy could sit where ever. She sat in the chair that had the view of all exits.

“Bruce,” Steve said as he lightly tapped the other man's shoulder. “Can you hang out in the bathroom for a little while, please?”  
  
Bruce stood up, grumbling as he walked out of the tent like thing. Steve turned to face Peggy.

“What's your full name?”

“Agent Margret Carter. My grandmother didn't believe in middle names.”  
  
Those were her same words as when Steve had first asked her. He had decided to do a team building thing with the Commandos and she had been invited to hang out with them. They had drank all of their alcohol rations for the month in that one night while Peggy and Steve watched, they both had stayed sober. Peggy remembered quite a few things she could use for black mail later on.

“Steven Grant Rogers. My grandmother probably liked them.”

She laughed, though it came out choked.

She shivered slightly. This part of the restaurant was cold. The thought popped in Peggy's mind that Steve could have a lot of family if his mother came from Ireland, and since Sarah probably immigrated without her family, Steve could have a lot of distant cousins that he never knew about. She would, if this was the real Steve, talk to him about the possibility later. Because he had already said it was just him and Bucky during the war, he may not be aware there were others.

“Peggy, how'd you end up here?”  
  
“I ended up in Central Park, rolling down a hill and nearly fell into a pond. A man picked me up, him and another man tried to come onto me. I took care of them quite easily. I kept walking towards the skyline until Jenna invited me inside here and I happened to see a sign about Captain America.”  
  
Steve flushed and looked away at that last part. “Yeah. Pepper makes us do PR, even though everyone knows who we are.”  
  
“Which I hate,” said that red-haired woman who had been on Steve's arm earlier. She appeared in the doorway, poking her head inside before the rest of her body followed “It's so boring. I'd rather be in the tower watching movies and eating pizza like tradition.”

She was quite beautiful and she looked at Steve fondly. She walked over to him and ruffled his hair, before sliding into the seat next to him. Steve grinned at her. Peggy wondered how long these two had been romantically involved. She nearly expected the woman to kiss Steve there and then.

Peggy wouldn't stay with Steve. She didn't want to get in the way of Steve's new found happiness. And she sure wasn't going to fight over him with another girl. That was stupid.

“This is Natasha. She's my---”  
  
“Best friend,” Natasha interrupted and smiled at Peggy. She wiggled her eyebrows slightly, which confused Peggy.

Steve nodded in agreement. “Now leave, Nat. I'm busy.”

Natasha smirked and leaned forward, whispering something in his ear. Peggy looked away, though she didn't miss the tips of Steve's ears turn red as he swatted Natasha away.

When she left as silently as she came in, her hips swaying slightly. She mentioned something about going to dance with Clint. Peggy didn't know who he was, so she pushed the information out of her mind for now. Steve smiled sheepishly at her. Peggy didn't know what to do or say, so she was glad Steve started talking.

“After I crashed the plane, I froze, turned into a Capsicle. SHEILD, which was a secret organization like the SSR was, uncovered me back in 2011 and thawed me out. Everyone I knew was dead. You, Bucky, the Commandos... Fury, the director of SHIELD, showed up and asked me to lead a team called the Avengers because there was about to be this alien invasion. Sometimes, Peggy, I think my life's turned into one of those dime novels Bucky used to read. Natasha is on the team, she's this really cool assassin-spy-thing and Clint uses a bow and he never misses and I think he was an assassin too. But he never talks about it. Nat doesn't either. Then there's Thor, he's an alien too. Prince of Asgard and his brother was the one who invaded New York with the Chitauri. Bruce, the guy with the curly hair, tried to recreate a super soldier serum and it messed up and long story short, whenever he gets mad he turns into a giant green rage monster. And then Tony. He's Howard's kid, Peg. Though he hates Howard with a passion so never mention Howard. He made this robot suit thing. I'm pretty sure that was in one of Buck's novels.”  
  
Peggy was surprised he told her all of this. It seemed classified. Though earlier Jenna had basically given her a shorter version of the story. But she didn't need to tell Steve that. Steve looked extremely nervous. He was leaning back in his chair, his fingers lightly tapped the arm rest as he waited for Peggy to say something.

“And I should believe this why?” She asked. That seemed to disappoint Steve as he basically deflated.

“Because it's what happened. It's crazy, Peggy. But that's the future.”  
  
He glanced at the ground and then back up at Peggy. He looked like he was trying to make himself seem smaller. Peggy tried to smile at him, it was forced.

Steve lurched forwards slightly before he froze, his eyes on the curtain to the side of Peggy. She wondered, if for a moment Steve was going to kiss her. Someone behind Peggy began laughing. Peggy spun around. Without thinking, she reached into her purse, hand wrapped around her gun. Steve placed his hand on her shoulder and she relaxed slightly at the touch. It felt like the only sane thing she's had happen so far.

In front of her was a blonde man with the long hair who seemed to be even stronger than Steve. Peggy didn't glance back at him. If he was a threat then she didn't want to take her eyes off him.

“Thor,” Steve muttered behind her, clearly annoyed.

“Aye! Steven, who is this female friend? Is she the one you noticed earlier during the signing?”

He must have been the Asgardian Steve mentioned earlier. She wondered why everyone kept interrupting them. It was like in the war when the Commandos wanted them to get together so badly that they would constantly check to make sure they were getting along. They were the reason why it took Steve so long to finally kiss her. Of course they had both denied their feelings as well. There also hadn't been time.

And here Peggy was, she didn't consider herself a romantic, she had liked one guy and he died on her. But then he hadn't died and just time traveled, like she did. Goodness, this was confusing.

“Agent Carter,” she said extending her hand. Did aliens shake hands? She didn't want to offend one of Steve's friends.

Thor took her hand, though with a confused look. “I believed SHIELD to have closed down.” 

“I'm not with SHIELD.”

“The SSR,” Steve added just a little too quickly.

“Ah,” Thor nodded. He had a large hammer in his other hand. He dropped it on the ground next to him and the floor shook slightly. “That place Steven used to work before Shield!”

Did that mean the SSR closed down? Peggy was kinda glad, they were all jerks there who didn't understand how a mission worked. She could get in and out of an event before they even showed. She was always two steps ahead of them and she worked with them. She could've been one of their best agents if they gave her the chance. And now, if she failed or Jarvis blabbed, they'd both get tried for treason.

“Yeah Thor,” Steve said.

“Anthony says we may finally leave. Everyone is in the limo.” Thor spun around and grabbed a piece of bread off of the table before he left.

Steve sighed heavily as he stood up. He also grabbed a piece of bread off the table and pushed in his chair. Peggy saw a little stain of something red on part of the white table cloth, they must have already eaten dinner.

This was it, Steve was leaving Peggy behind again. He hadn't invited her along and she wasn't going to overstay her welcome. She'd call Jenna, perhaps stay the night there or use the money in the man's wallet she stole for a motel.

Steve wrapped his hand around Peggy's. He was waiting for her to get up, not pulling out her chair or anything. He knew she hated that. Peggy stood up, her heart soaring. Oh God, she was as bad as one of the showgirls who had fallen for Steve. This was horrible. It wasn't her fault she had missed Steve so much over the last year. She was just happy because no one had something like this happen before.

She'd get over the novelty of seeing Steve soon.

* * *

 

Steve had let go of her hand before they entered the car. Though he had opened the door for Peggy and grinned slyly at the glare she gave him. She knew everyone was discreetly staring at her as she slide in the car. This was easily the nicest place she'd ever been before and it was a car. The outside was a nice sleek black and the inside had leather seats and even a little icebox. There were seven people in the back including her and Steve. Someone was up front, he was driving them down the streets and weaving through the crowds, muttering curse words under his breath.

She leaned back into the seat next to Steve and pretended to be at ease. She was already trying to find things that could be used as weapons without making it seem like that's what she was doing. Steve's team seemed pretty hard to beat, so she'd have to be able to flee at any moment without having to get into that much combat.

“Hi,” said another red-head who was at the icebox trying to poor a drink. “I'm Pepper Potts.”

Pepper slide back into her seat with the wine bottle and a couple of glasses. She handed one to the blonde guy sitting next to her, and then another to Natasha. She offered one to Peggy, but she shook her head. She needed her mind to be clear in case something happened.

Peggy wasn't sure how to introduce herself, if the SSR wasn't around anymore she couldn't exactly lay claim to the name Agent without people mistaking her for SHIELD. Peggy didn't know a lot about what had happened with them that made Steve seem so nervous, and didn't want people to associate her name with a bad agency.

“That's Clint,” Steve said quickly as he pointed to the first man Pepper had handed a glass to. She already knew Nat, Thor and Bruce, so Steve fell silent.

“This is Agent Peggy Carter. We worked in the SSR together,” Steve introduced Peggy and she was glad. She doubted she would have ever bothered.

The man in the front seat coughed loudly. Clint flinched and he squinted up at the back of the seat.

“How old is she exactly?” Clint asked. He took a long sip of his drink and handed it to Pepper for more.

“Twenty-seven,” Peggy could understand why her age was important because they had forgotten to mention she traveled in time.

“How did you get here?” Natasha asked. She had sat on the other side of Steve and she leaned forwards slightly.

Peggy bit her lip, debating on what to tell them. She reached in her purse and everyone seemed to hold their breath. She set her lipstick on the table next to her and her lock picker. Natasha eyed them both wearily. She pulled out the Nitramene and showed them.

“Is that a bomb?” Their driver asked. “Because I really don't want one in my car.”

Peggy was surprised at how easily he figured it out when he wasn't even staring at it.

“It should have been Nitramene. I was recovering it for Howard. Someone broke into his basement and stole his more dangerous weapons.”

She said most of this in a low voice to Steve, though everyone else seemed to be able to hear her. Expect for Clint, who was staring at Peggy's lips. Thor's mouth had dropped open part way through Peggy's speech. He reached out, covering the small distance that separated the seats easily. Peggy grabbed his wrist before he could touch it. If Thor was a friend of Steve's then she didn't want him getting hurt.

“Where did you find this, Lady Peggy?”

“Thor calls everyone by their full name or with a Lady in front of it,” Natasha told her, when Peggy opened her mouth in surprise.

Peggy nodded, she would prefer to just be called Peggy. But if it was alien culture then she would wait to see how long she'd have to be with him before asking. Steve grinned at the look on her face and she elbowed him in the stomach. Gosh, it was like they had never been apart. He still acted like a little shit, and oh did Peggy miss that.

“This isn't a bomb,” Thor said as he popped the top off and the gold tendrils flew around his hand. “It's another Infinity Stone. Like the Tesseract or the Aether.”

The car seemed to get ten degrees colder. Peggy knew what the Tesseract was and she had seen what it did to the Red Skull. And she had touched it. What if it made her power hungry like him. She shifted slightly. Maybe this was how Steve had felt when he saw all the serum's side effects, perhaps he was scared he'd turn into someone like the Red Skull. But it hadn't happened to him yet, so she wouldn't let the Infinity Stone take over her.

“I don't know which Stone it is. I'd have to take it to Asgard and let the magic wielders figure out which ones have been found,” Thor paused. He brightened. “Perhaps I can finally take you all to see Asgard!”

“Because that's how I'd want to see it, by worrying about another stupid Stone,” Clint muttered.

The car started to slow down and the driver rolled down his window. Everyone began calling out orders for various burgers and fries without being prompted. Steve ordered at least two quarter ponders, Peggy wasn't sure of the exact number, all the other orders distracted her. Natasha was the one who leaned across Steve's lap, placing her hand on his upper thigh and Steve didn't even seem to notice.

“What do you want, Peggy?” She wasn't sure when they started calling each other by their first name, but at this point she didn't care.

“Just a burger.” That's all she knew that they had, so she went with it. She hadn't realized how hungry she was. She hadn't eaten anything for over fourteen hours and walking through New York did make someone hungry.

Steve smiled at her when their driver handed all the bags back and everyone began going through it. He spread a napkin down on the little seat space between them and dumped his box of fries onto it, allowing Peggy to take some.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my awesome commenter! and all the kudos! Let me know what you think of everything so far and if you have any tips on how my writing can improve:)
> 
> (i don't really like where this chapter ended but otherwise it would have messed up my chapter count so... Hopefully the next one will be up tomorrow or sunday!)


	3. Chapter 3

Peggy stood in the corner of the elevator as she watched everyone interact with each other. Natasha and Clint seemed quite close when they thought no one was looking, while their driver had his arm slung around Pepper. Those two were the only ones wearing something that looked close to the forties. Pepper's hair curled down her back while the driver had on a pair of sunglasses that made Peggy wonder how bloodshot his eyes were underneath. Though, when Pepper lifted up his glasses and set them on the floor in the corner of the elevator, his eyes were simply brown. And he was staring at Peggy. She looked away quickly and focused on the floor.

Steve squeezed her hand, having taken it sometime she had gotten out of the limo and Natasha whispered something in Steve's ear. Ever since then, Steve had stayed close to Peggy.

She hadn't meant to stay with them so long. Perhaps after the food (which had tasted quite strange and Peggy only ate enough to not cause questions, because she feared it was poisonous) she would have slipped away into the garage and would make her way to a safe house. The more she thought about Jenna, the stranger it felt that someone like her would be escorted into the party without exchanging vital information about themselves. Perhaps that's just how the future worked.

And again, Steve squeezed her hand and gently pulled her towards the elevator doors past all the others. They hadn't opened since Peggy had gotten on. Peggy had started to get a bit worried as the numbered climbed higher. At this point they were on the 91st floor. The doors opened with a _ding!_ That strange Asgardian who had given back the Stone, Clint and Natasha followed them.

Natasha and Clint took off down one of the many halls. She heard one of them laugh but she wasn't sure who. Thor followed them. He dropped his hammer on the floor as he went. This time nothing shook. Steve made his way to the living room which had a kitchen behind it. Everything was such a bright shade of white, it made Peggy want to squint. The entire wall was covered in windows.   
  
She walked over and stared down at the city below her. It was shocking how much it's changed. Everything lit up and if Peggy squinted, she could see little blobs of people at Time Square. There was even a ball in the air and a clock that showed the time: 11:13.

“So,” Steve started off. He had been mostly silent in the elevator ride, allowing Clint and the driver to endlessly chatter. “I have to go upstairs with the team and watch the ball drop in fifteen minutes. It's a tradition that Clint started two years ago where everyone wears their pajamas and eats pizza.”

Steve was in the kitchen. Which was much more high tech than anything Peggy had ever seen before. Steve was pulling stuff out of the fridge and sticking frozen pizzas in the oven. She decided not to mention that they just ate. She knew Steve had to eat a lot.

“If you want to come, you can borrow pants from Natasha and wear one of my shirts. Or we can get you set up in a bedroom while these bake and you can sleep.”

“Steve,” Peggy laughed as she crossed the distance to the kitchen. She slide onto one of the stools and leaned her head against her hands, placing her elbows on the granite island. “I'll come with you.”  
  
She was more than a little surprised that he had suggested his shirt and not one of Natasha's. That seemed a little forward about the suggestions, but this was the future. Everything was probably different.

“Jarvis,” Steve said suddenly. She blinked in surprise and followed Steve's eyes to the ceiling. “Can you ask Nat to bring pajama pants for Peggy?”  
  
“Already done, Captain,” said the British voice. Okay, that was creepy that Jarvis had practically followed her to the future. She wondered who made this Jarvis and why. She assumed this was technology like in Barnes' books would imply. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

Then Steve looked at Peggy. Something sparked in his eyes. He turned around and pressed a button on the stove before he lifted Peggy off the chair. He paused, biting his lip when he realized that she might not want to be carried.

“What the hell,” she said under her breath. “Just this once.”  
  
Steve darted down the hallway, the opposite direction everyone else took. He looked down at Peggy and couldn't help but grin. A slight laugh echoed down the hallway. Steve paused, nearly tripping as he spun around. Natasha stood there, a folded pair of pants in her arms. She had gotten changed into something lose fitting and black clothing, her hair pulled into a bun.

Natasha didn't say anything. She approached slowly, like Steve might bolt. Peggy stared Natasha down, daring her to say something. Steve shifted and nearly set Peggy down, but Natasha had already dropped a pair of blue pants with hearts on them, on top of Peggy's stomach. She retreated down the hall, leaving the other two be. He frowned and then slipped into the first room.

This must have been his bedroom. It was bigger than her entire apartment, which she'd have to get rid of now that Colleen was dead. That sobered her mood. Steve set her down and Peggy noticed all the painting supplies in the corner of the room. It had the same large windows as the living room and kitchen did, though this one was covered with art work. There were several different paintings on the wall and Peggy walked closer to inspect them. There was one with Bucky's face, though he wore all black and one of his arms were silver and his hair quite longer than the Barnes Peggy knew. And then there was one of her looking off into the distance, her expression hard. When she looked back at Steve after staring at other pictures of people Peggy knew from the war and scenery from different parts of the world, Steve seemed embarrassed and pretended not to be trying to figure out what Peggy thought of them. He ruffled through his drawer, trying to find a shirt for Peggy.

Peggy moved forwards, her gold dress sparkled in the dim lighting. She appeared behind Steve, reaching forwards and grabbing a black shirt. It had a logo on the back, a bird with too many angles and a circle around it. Steve frowned at it and pulled out a different shirt for her. This one had the words _Art Museum_ printed on it. Peggy would ask about the black shirt another time.

“You can, uh, go get changed in the bathroom if you want,” Steve said. He stood up jerkily and grabbed his own clothes from where they were on his dresser. And here he was again, the Steve Rogers who couldn't talk to woman. She smiled faintly at him.

Peggy went into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She jumped slightly as the floor heated up under her bare feet as she kicked her heels off. She breathed a sigh of relief. She could only wear those awful shoes for so long. She slide out of her dress, letting it fall to the floor with a thud. She quickly slipped on the t-shirt and pants. She waited for a moment, taking a deep breath as she stared at herself in the mirror. She took out the pins in her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders in waves. Her makeup had held up quite well. Peggy set her purse on the counter and rummaged through it. The Stone was still in one piece and she set it on the counter. Her gun was there. She made sure the safety was on. Peggy was really just wasting time before she had to see Steve again.

Steve. Her Steve was back and in one piece. She wished Howard had recovered him, but obviously not. She'd ask him about all the details later. When everything calmed down and she wasn't so tired. When ever Peggy was this sleep deprived, she would do or say something rash. She hoped that tonight she could keep it under control.

Peggy opened the door, tucking all of her stuff back into her purse as she went, leaving her dress in a crumpled heap. Steve had gotten changed as well and was sitting on his bed, drawing something. He looked up as soon as Peggy walked into the room. Before either of them could say something, Jarvis interrupted.

“Captain and Agent Carter, Sir requests that you both be upstairs in under two minutes. He would also like you both fully clothed.”  
  
Peggy's eyes widened at what Jarvis was implying. Steve rolled his eyes and stood up, dropping the sketch book on the bed.

“Sorry. Tony's an asshole,” He apologized. Peggy nodded, that seemed like something Howard would imply and she remembered Steve mentioning that he was Howard's kid.

* * *

She sat on the love seat, her legs thrown across Steve's lap as she watched everyone in Times Square count down excitedly. Natasha, Clint, and the driver who turned out to be Tony, were all counting down sarcastically. Thor seemed excited and happy as he counted down with someone on the phone with him. Steve had given her a crash course on a few of the things the future held in store. He mentioned cellphones and explained what Jarvis was, an AI. How neat, of course a Stark would invent that.

Steve silently mouthed the words, the light from the television (which was quite large, it took up almost the entire wall) was the only source in the room. The blue casted an errie glow on Steve's face that reminded Peggy of the Tesseract.

And then everyone cheered, including Steve, it was 2015 now. Peggy didn't see why that was such a big deal. But she went along with it and faked a smile.

“Pepper,” She heard Tony whisper. “I haven't had sex in over a year.”

Everyone else slowly got up and left while she and Steve watched various singers perform. It was quite strange seeing how different all the artists styles were. She focused on that instead of Steve, who was staring at her. He moved shifting so he was right in front of her face. His breath hot on her face.

And then he closed the slight gap between them, tilting his head slightly, as he kissed her. This one was different than their only other kiss. That one had been full of desperation and fear that they'd never see each other again. This kiss was slower, not as scared and rushed. Steve's lips tasted like pizza as they slowly moved against hers. She wondered if hers tasted the same. One of Steve's arms moved around Peggy, pulling her closer. Peggy gripped Steve's shirt in her hand, unsure of where else to put them.

She wasn't sure how long the kiss lasted, though they pulled away out of breath. Which was a challenge for Steve. He grinned at her, tired and dopey as he fell back against the couch, his head hitting the arm rest. She was pretty sure she had the same look on her face. She tried to sit up, though Steve pulled her back down, wrapping both arms around her. He nestled his face in her hair, still breathing heavily.

“I've missed you so much Peggy,” Steve whispered.

They fell asleep together in a tangle of limbs.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment:) I wont bite your heads off or anything. It doesn't matter what you comment on. We can talk about our favorite ships if that's what suits you!
> 
> So this was a lot shorter and I tacked some on at the end and I'm not sure how I feel about it.


	4. Chapter 4

 

She woke to the smell of bacon. Her eyes opened the same time as Steve's and they made awkward eye contact. Though that sweet smile that graced Steve's features made the one moment of uncertainty fade away. Peggy sat up, stretching her limbs as she watched Steve roll off the couch with a thump. She saw people in the kitchen. They were whispering angrily at each other and trying to seem like they weren't staring at Peggy and Steve. Peggy frowned as she extended a hand to help Steve off the ground. He glanced up at the kitchen and ignored Natasha's little wave.

“Sorry about her,” Steve whispered as he stood up.

Peggy rolled her eyes and scoffed. She unfolded her legs and followed him. The first thing she heard was someone shouting: “Thor, dammit! You're going to burn it.”  
  
She wasn't sure which of the guys said it, all of the men besides Steve were huddled around the stove, trying to cook. Natasha sipped her coffee and watched them all with an amused smirk.

Pepper smiled at Peggy as she walked in, her heels sinking into the soft carpet. Peggy was glad she discarded hers last night. Pepper slipped off her shoes and dumped the files on the kitchen island. It was the same setup as the one on Steve's floor, though it was nearly twice the size.

“Tony,” Pepper said. Everyone in the kitchen froze and Tony turned around slowly. His face lit up in a mixture of fear and happiness when he saw Pepper. “I need you to sign all of these. They're due tomorrow.”  
  
“Pepper,” Tony whined. He took the pen from Pepper's hand and began digging through the mess of paperwork. He signed where needed. His signature looked exactly like Howard's. So this was his kid. Or probably one of them, with the sex life Howard had, Tony probably had several siblings that he wasn't aware of.

She glanced up at Steve, who was no longer beside her. He began cooking breakfast and shooed Thor, Clint and Bruce out of the kitchen. Bruce sighed heavily as he sat on the stool next to Peggy. She wasn't sure what to say to him, so she ignored him.

“As soon as you finish that Natasha and I can take Peggy shopping,” Pepper gathered the papers Tony had already signed and placed them back in her files.

Natasha and Peggy's heads both shot up at the same time, their expressions both bewildered. She hadn't signed up for this. She hadn't even been shopping in quite sometime. Perhaps it was to prove a point at work, though she wasn't completely sure. She just had more important things to do, that was all.

Clint started laughing at their faces and stopped when Natasha glared at him. Peggy glanced at Steve, who was placing dishes in front of everyone, she tried to plead with him, but he shook his head and turned away. Steve grabbed the eggs and bacon and began dishing them out.

Pepper smiled, “It's my private stylist. So we won't be there for more than a few hours.”

Peggy didn't want to do that. She wanted to stay here with Steve, she was scared something would happen and wanted to spend as much time as possible with him.

“I have contacted Heimdall and we will leave for Asgard in two days. He has contacted Lady Sif to make preparation,” Thor announced, changing the subject. “Lady Jane will not be coming. She does not wish to see Asgard at the moment.”

Peggy had no idea who any of those ladies were and it seemed like neither did Steve. He sat down across from Peggy and began shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth. She sniffed it once, before slowly eating it.

“I assume Lady Peggy will be coming since she is the one who found the Stone and has some claim over it. Steven, Clinton and Lady Natasha, you are invited. I do not believe the Bifrost would be wise for Bruce to attempt, and Anthony should stay here so we are not completely splitting are forces.”

Steve nodded. “Good plan, Thor.”

Natasha nodded and Clint seemed nervous. He tapped his fork against the counter and frowned to himself. Natasha squeezed his hand and took the utensil out of it. Pepper grabbed an extra fork and began eating off of Tony's plate. He wasn't eating it, he was fousced on a screen that appeared in mid air. He was typing on it. Peggy looked away, though she didn't miss the word _Ultron_ on it.

Clint stared talking, blabbering just to fill the silence. It was about a show of some sort they must have been watching. Peggy assumed it meant radio show, but with a television like that, they could have mini movies nowadays. That would be neat.

Finally Pepper excused herself, Natasha and Peggy to go shopping. It was kinda a blur after that, what with Natasha handing her jeans and a black blouse before pushing her into the bathroom, apparently Peggy still couldn't wear pajamas outside in the future. And then she was being escorted to the car by Natasha. Pepper was already waiting for them. She slide into the back of the car and pulled Peggy in.

“Where to, Ms Potts?” asked their driver. Peggy couldn't get a good look at him from where she was sitting between Natasha and Pepper.

“Piper Grace's shop, Happy.”

Pepper had her own stylist, which was quite confusing to Peggy why someone would need one. Piper moved around the closed shop happily as she picked out clothing that would look good on Peggy. Apparently she had agreed to meet them even when most of the shops in New York were closed. She should feel honored, were Piper's exact words. Peggy didn't care for people like that.

She had brought her purse with her, clinging onto it for the safety of the Stone and her gun close at her side. Piper Grace had taken one look at it and gotten Peggy a bigger, crossbody purse. It was something to do with Coach. Peggy had never heard of that brand before, but Pepper and Natasha both loved it.

Natasha stood next to Peggy, skimming through bags for herself. She picked a large black handbag that would make it easy to knock someone out with. Peggy wished she had one of those. But she stayed silent and let Piper Grace (who didn't like her name shorted to just Piper, Peggy had found that out the hard way) do whatever was needed to be done. It involved throwing on several shades of clothes to figure out Peggy's shade, which she already knew. She had been shopping before. She could enjoy this much more if Piper Grace wasn't hovering around like Peggy was an incapable idiot. Natasha lifted up a shirt that Peggy liked a lot. She was impressed with how much Natasha noticed. They both knew the other had looked for exits as soon as they entered the building. Peggy respected Natasha for that. Pepper turned out to be the CEO of Stark Industrious, which was an impressive feet for Peggy, no woman would have been able to earn a position like that in the forties after all the men started coming back.

Finally they were finished and Happy carried out all of their bags. Peggy gave Pepper one of the plastic cards from the man's wallet she had stolen from the party. After explaining, Pepper shook her head and told Peggy to save the money in there. The Avengers all had access to Tony's funds. She winked at Peggy after that, leaving her thoroughly confused as to what she meant by that. Peggy figured Tony was insanely rich, what with the Tower that Natasha mentioned Tony built.

They were finished and after three hours of Peggy being a doll, they decided to get food.

“Your choice,” Pepper said. She then frowned, realizing where she slipped up, Peggy didn't know any restaurants.

Natasha decided on a French place where the cheapest thing on the menu was soup for nineteen dollars. Peggy was in shock, though Pepper and Natasha barely batted an eye at the prices. She assumed this to just be common fare and inflation.

“You're taking the future quite well compared to Steve when he woke up,” Natasha commented casually.

Peggy was aware that Natasha was baiting her, trying to get information out of her.

“Different circumstances I would assume.” The waiter walked over, presenting Peggy with pheasant. It looked quite good. Much better than the war rations she lived with for the past years.

“You've barely commented on all these newfangled things,” Natasha said as she cut off a piece of her chicken and took a bite. Next to her, Pepper shifted and frowned.

“I've read Sargent Barnes' dime novels during the war. They've mentioned a lot of this. There's not much difference beyond technology. Men are still fools, or at least that's what I've seen so far.”

Natasha grinned at Peggy. She must have said something right to have pleased Natasha. She had the feeling the woman only smirked and said everything in a monotone voice. Pepper swallowed her soup nervously, waiting for someone to say something.

“Pepper, we'll have to get Peggy a phone. Peggy, I'll show you how to use it. Steve is clueless with that stuff.”

Something in the way Natasha smiled at her made Peggy wonder if she had earned the Natasha seal of approval.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (feels like I'm constantly annoying everyone for asking them to review but i also update faster when people leave comments so idk what to say anymore:) )
> 
> Anyways, I hoped you liked this chapter. It's starting to pick up. There's two-ish more chapters of filler and then action. I've accidentally added on more since the new agent carter preview because i got too excited.
> 
> One last note because i always write these while editing the story so it gets out of order... Piper Grace was meant to kinda like a reference to Hazel Grace from tfios. Though i changed the first name to Piper because I liked the name or you can consider it a reference to Piper from HoH or Orange is the New Black.
> 
> and i feel like the point of this chapter is just girl bonding because that's really important. 
> 
> okay im done now. I hope you enjoyed everything so far.


	5. Chapter 5

 

The very next day, Steve invited her on an honest to God date. She was more than a little surprised. Natasha picked out something for Peggy to wear, since she was aware of what the date involved, while it was a surprise for Peggy. She never liked those and she thought Steve understood that.

It was a red dress, a more modern take on that one she had on in the pub during the war. Natasha left the room after that, telling Peggy to leave her hair straight. It was the style nowadays. She followed Natasha's advice, she knew more about this future than her.

Peggy would have to look into the past, figure out what important events she has missed. Perhaps she'd ask Steve about it. Peggy walked to the elevator on Jarvis' instructs. She didn't even have to press a button before it started shooting downwards. She leaned against the wall, watching the city through the glass window.

She took a moment, thinking about how crazy her past few days had been. It didn't make sense. None of it really, time traveling, meeting Steve and his new friends, them being so kind to her. It made her nervous. She took in a shaky breath,

“Are you alright, Agent Carter?” Jarvis asked.

Peggy jumped slightly. She preferred the real Edwin Jarvis, that one couldn't sneak up on her. She hadn't gotten a lot of information out of anyone about why Tony had decided to immortalize the butler.

“I'm quite alright. Thank you,” Peggy said. Her eyes went to the ceiling. There was a speaker in the corner of the room. “What's your story, Jarvis? I once knew someone with that name.”  
  
They were passing the fiftieth floor and the elevator slowed to a stop. The doors opened and someone stepped inside. A man with dark hair and a suit. Peggy pulled her coach bag a little closer, preparing to grab her gun out.

“Feel free to ask Mr. Stark. I'm sure he'd love to tell you about it.”  
  
The dark haired man looked up, a hideous mustache growing on his upper lip. “You know Mr. Stark? Are you a new Avenger?”  
  
Peggy glanced at him, nondescript, no bulges in his pockets to signal a gun and he kept his distance from her. She had the Stone to protect. She'd leave it with Thor, but she didn't trust him. If it was as important as it seemed, then she'd stick it out to the end and make sure it was safe.

“I've met him,” Peggy said. She glanced up at him, smiling slightly. “I don't believe I'm a part of that team.”  
  
“What's your name?” He leaned against the wall, running a hand through his hair. He was preening, trying to impress Peggy. She was disgusted.

“I don't see why my name would matter to you. I don't have any plans on ever seeing you again.”  
  
“Mr. Kirstein, your floor,” Jarvis announced as the elevator stopped on the ground level.

The man glared at Peggy as he walked into what must have been the receptionist area. It was quite impressive, what with it's marble floors and the big _A_ on the floor and the pretty secretary who was talking to Kirstein about something. She was frowning and even placed a finger under his chin, lifting it so he wasn't staring at her breasts. The doors closed before Peggy saw how he reacted.

 

And then she found a car pulled up to the elevator doors as she stepped into the well-lit garage. It was Happy the driver, who had driven Pepper, Natasha and her around all day yesterday. He started to get out of the car, but Peggy opened the passenger door and slide inside. Happy grinned at her.

“So your date location is supposed to be a secret,” Happy started. Peggy glanced at him, unimpressed. “I didn't think that was a good idea. What if you thought I was driving you to your death?”  
  
Happy laughed nervously as he pulled out of the building and braked at a red light.

“That thought never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. Should I get out now while the car's stopped?”

Happy laughed even louder, though this one was more of humor than fear. Peggy glanced out at the street. Snow was coming down and Peggy wished she had brought more than her thin black jacket Natasha had given her. Peggy was well aware of Natasha's attempts to play match maker with them. It was working quite well. Happy pulled up to the curb and let Peggy out.

They were at Times Square again, she would be able to find her way there blind folded from Avengers Tower pretty soon. She walked into the restaurant and froze. It felt like she had stepped back in time to the Victorian era. It was impressive with the towering white poles and the paintings on the ceiling. Peggy stepped forwards, her hair falling around her shoulders with specks of snow in it.

The hostess stepped forwards, boredom etched across her face. “Peggy Carter?” She asked in a fake British accent.

She dipped her head in acknowledgement. She couldn't help but look for all the exits. It was a habit that she didn't want to break. Steve looked up from his menu as the hostess led her to him. He had gotten the table in the very back and allowed her to have the seat that viewed all the exits. She smiled at him and hurried over to him. She sat down before Steve could offer to pull her chair out.

Steve grinned at her and set his menu down. “Hey, Peggy.”

“Steve,” she smiled.

As first dates went, this was amazing. They talked about everything and nothing. He caught her up to date on the stuff he figured was important (everything from something called Star Trek to the Chitauri invasion). And then he made small talk about Avengers Tower and explained Jarvis to her. Peggy laughed at the right moments and even mentioned what was going on with Howard at the moment. Steve frowned at that and mentioned something like that happened with Tony and weapons being stolen and sold to terrorists.

Then the waiter brought out their food and it was amazing. Steve held hands with Peggy as he talked about Sam and the Smithsonian exhibit about him. He pulled up his phone and showed her a couple things on the internet as well. Peggy listened. And she was glad that Steve was so happy in this future, even with Barnes' death.

After that, they walked back to the tower. Steve gave Peggy his suit jacket to wear, even though she insisted that she was find in the cold. He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close as they walked back to the tower. If anyone else did that to her, she would have gotten upset. Little flecks of snow fell around them and at one point Steve tilted his head back and caught snow in his mouth.

“Captain!” Someone shouted. Peggy looked up and saw the flash of the camera, instinctively, she dropped her head away, hiding her face.

Steve frowned and shook his head at the reporter, they walked a little faster. He seemed extremely upset over the invasion of privacy. Peggy wondered how often that happened.

“I'm sorry, Peggy,” Steve apologized. “I should have had Happy take us home. I just didn't know how long we'd be and I didn't want him to have to wait and--”  
  


“It's fine!” Peggy assured him. She continued to hide her face as they made it into the Avengers Tower lobby.

Steve frowned upon seeing the receptionist. Peggy shrugged his suit jacket off, handing it back to him. She paused for a moment at the amount of people streaming past them. A mixture of men and woman in suits and white lab coats. Steve grabbed her hand and led her over to the brown haired woman Peggy saw earlier.

“Captain,” the woman said. “Have you come to rescue me of the horrors of paperwork?”

She had been talking with a man, whose face turned red from anger at some point. The woman slide all the paperwork back and guided Steve and Peggy to a different part of the lobby. They sat down in chairs that felt like they were going to swallow her whole.

“Peggy, this is Maria Hill. We used to work together with Shield.”  
  
Peggy wondered what ever happened to this Shield. It didn't make sense that everyone she met used to work with them. Had they closed down for various reasons?

“Peggy Carter,” She said, shaking Maria's hand. Maria's eyes had widened for a split second after hearing her name. She'd grill Steve about that later.

After a moment of silence, Maria spoke up. “Look, Steve, I've got work to do with this shitty company. Don't tell Stark I said that, I need this job. I'll talk to you and your friend later.” And with that Maria was gone, wading through the crowds.

“And that was the ever pleasant Maria Hill,” Steve murmured.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter they go to Asgard! 
> 
> I would have posted this yesterday but I had to sit in a car for six hours and didn't take my computer out to edit anything. I don't know when I'll post the next chapter. I should really pick out update days... Chapter six will probably be posted on Friday unless anyone wants it sooner:)


	6. Chapter 6

They were on the rooftop of the tower. It seemed to be ten degrees colder now than when she had first woken up. Peggy pulled her leather jacket closer, trying to keep warm. She had her purse securely tucked underneath it. She stood to the side and watched the team say their goodbyes. Steve hugged Tony, who pretended to cry about his friend was leaving. Clint lightly hit Bruce with his bow, before hugging him goodbye. He yanked Natasha in on the hug as well. Thor walked over to Peggy and watched them with her.

“The Avengers are great Midgardians. Some of my closest friends. When we return to Asgard I fear my father won't be pleased I brought home another Infinity Stone. There can only be one Stone on a planet for it to be truly safe. Earth has had many appear on it. I worry for the safety of this planet.”

“I do too. I thought it'd be war that wiped us out, not glowing Stones.”

Thor laughed, throwing his head back as he did. He had gotten changed into some sort of armor with a red flowing cape. Peggy didn't question it. She figured it was an alien thing. Steve glanced over at her for a minute and grinned brilliantly at her.

“He likes you a lot,” Thor commented. “The Captain is a great man.”  
  
Peggy shifted. She disliked talking about her love life like that and at the moment she felt like Thor was one of those girls who would try to gossip with Angie at the cafe. So she smiled tightly and nodded.

“Yes, I am aware.”

Steve walked over then, he grabbed Peggy's hand, squeezing it as Thor instructed them to all stand wrap their arms around each other. Peggy had been staring at the ground, but when she looked up, Clint's grinning face was in hers. She resisted the urge to make a disgusted noise.

The world blew up in rainbow colors. It was so much different than traveling with the Stone. It didn't feel like she was threatened to be pulled apart. This was calmer, it felt like a plane taking off. If she looked up, she could see the colorful swirls around them. Clint sucked in a breath of awe. Thor grinned proudly. And then it stopped and they were tumbling forwards. Peggy looked up from where she was sprawled on the ground to see a large man in golden armor staring down at them. The entire room was a mixture of dark gold hues.

“Heimdall,” Thor said, bowing his head.

Thor extended his hand and lifted Steve off the ground, helping him stand up. He offered his hand to Peggy, but she shook her head, frowning slightly as her legs nearly gave out. He helped Natasha and Clint off the ground also.

“ _Odin_ is waiting for you in the throne room,” Heimdall said. He sounded disgusted by just having to say that name.

Thor nodded slightly and he walked out of the room, grabbing a cloak that had been left on the floor in a crumpled mess. Thor took his hair down from his ponytail and spun around, giving a huge thumbs up and grinning at his team.

Peggy glanced up at Heimdall and was about to ask him a question when Natasha grabbed her arm, pulling her along. She nearly froze in surprise when she saw the five horses waiting for them. They were large and varied in color, from the black one Thor mounted, to the white one that seemed to like Natasha. She smiled and easily slide on. Clint began making cooing noises at his horse and Peggy wondered where he had gotten the training as he stood up on the saddle, showing off to Natasha.

She seemed to be the only one who had a problem with riding the horses, so she kept her mouth shut and approached one of the remaining horses. She patted the brown horse's neck slightly and it turned his head slightly to glare at her. Steve had already gotten on his horse, and Peggy looked at him helplessly for a brief moment before facing her fear.

Before the war and the economy falling, her aunt had owned a horse. Every weekend her mother would send her off to a different household, because she wanted alone time with Peggy's dad. And that one weekend was wasted on her aunt, who was the most boring person in the world. All she talked about was her horse and whatever man she had taken a liking to that week. Peggy loved visiting her grandmother, not her aunt. The aunt had at one point realized that a ten-year-old Peggy seemed close to jumping out of the second floor window and offered to teach her how to ride Crisp. Too bad her aunt wasn't a good teacher and after an hour that bloody horse had tried to kill her. She still had a scar on her left shoulder from where she was thrown. Perhaps the only reason why she held on to that fear was because it allowed her to never have to go over to her aunt's house again.

The horse started moving as soon as she mounted. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She tried to remember everything her Aunt taught her. Heels down, keep the reins close to the saddle, hold on for dear life...

She glanced over at Steve. He seemed to be having a great time, what with his shield bouncing up and down on his back as they went. His horse was probably named Freedom or something. Peggy focused on keeping from falling off her horse.

There wasn't anything under Peggy besides a translucent rainbow bridge. Everything around her was stars.

“On Asgard we don't have seasons like Midgard,” Thor shouted over the wind. He had dashed ahead of them and Peggy could barely here him, perhaps it was due to her horse lagging so far behind.

“That's why when it started snowing you thought Frost Giants were attacking?” Clint laughed at the memory. “You fought snowflakes with your hammer. Reporters were trying to figure out why there was lightening in a snow storm.”

Peggy looked up and saw the magnificent golden castle in the distance. It appeared taller than even Avengers Tower. Thor slowed his horse down by pulling back on the reins. Peggy tried to copy him and hers slowed down to a walk. Someone was waiting for them, her hair in a long brown braid down her back.

“Prince Thor,” She said, curtsying. She looked up at Thor's companions and frowned deeply. Though when she looked back at Thor her face brightened. Did she have a crush?

“Lady Airvoi, it is a pleasure to see you again,” his voice was loud, mostly for show. The next thing he said was faint. “How is Odin doing after Mother's death?”  
  
“He rarely leaves his throne anymore. He seems too sad to do much else. Though, he has made several good decisions for Asgard in the time while you were away. We are currently closely watching the Kree. If they slaughter any more Xandarians, then we will go to war.”  
  
“I'll discuss this with him later,” Thor promised.

Peggy had no idea what a Kree or Xandarian was, she assumed it was some sort of alien like Asgardians or something. Not for the first time, Peggy wondered if she was dreaming. Lady Airvoi seemed pleased with Thor. She bobbed her head and handed each of them a traveling cloak to put on. It would have severed them much better if they received it before going down Rainbow Road. Peggy took hers and wrapped it around her, it was almost identical with Steve's. His fit him perfectly, Peggy's dragged on the ground. She was happy to see that they were abandoning the horses.

“I'm Lady Airvoi. I'll be overseeing your stay in Asgard. Please let me know if there are any problems,” she said happily. She practically began skipping down the path, not waiting to see if anyone followed.

The paths seemed to be made of gold. It was a straight road leading to the castle, and from what Peggy could see, it seemed to be the only one. Houses were in a neat, orderly fashion. The ones farther out were closer to each other and didn't seem to be as fancy as the ones several blocks ahead.

Children were playing in the streets, though not with the windup toys or dolls from when she was little. These children had wooden swords and were hitting each other with it. It wasn't light and gentle, it was hard enough to break a bone. Most of them ignored their small group, though several of the children stopped and stared. Out of the corner of her eye she saw several little boys beating up a small girl. She clutched a dirty doll in her hands. The boys were shouting something, trying to grab it out of her hands. Peggy nearly walked over, but Steve was a step ahead of her.

Nearly all the children froze in mid swing to see what Steve was going to do. He knelt down in front of the little boys who were covered in dirt. One made a hoarse choking noise and ran away.

He lifted up the doll which had fallen onto the ground. He brushed some of the dirt off of it. The girl stared up at him in a mixture of shock and wonder. Peggy could remember him doing the same to the children during the bombing in London. Both of them had helped many families get into safety and Steve had always went back for lost toys. He understood that they'd comfort the children during the bombings. And here he was doing it again with this little girl.

He glanced at the other boys and gave them his best disapproving look. Something he had learned just for the Howling Commandos. She had a feeling Steve used it a lot lately, it seemed like all the Avengers thought of him as the parent, Peggy could remember him pulling pranks with Bucky during the war, she wondered how he had gotten placed in that position.

“Is this yours?” He asked.

The girl stared at him blankly. “Hva?”

Thor moved forwards, placing a hand on Steve's shoulder. Lady Airvoi paused and tilted her head.

“The children of Asgard do not get their Allspeak until at least two hundred and that depends on their career choice. Most who choose to stay on Asgard instead of joining the military or become a servant to the royal family never get the ability. On watching what Anthony does, I would say those on Midgard would call it a translator chip. It is inserted into their neck. Each of you have the chance to get it during your stay.

Thor looked down at the girl, who was scrambled backwards, her knees scraping on the road. She yelped in pain.

Thor knelt down and said something to her that Peggy couldn't hear from where she stood.

“Aye!” The girl yelled happily as she gently took it out of Steve's hand. “Dette er min dukke. Takk!”

“Have a nice day, Lady Kria,” Thor called out after her as the girl ran down the street, the opposite way all of those boys went.

Clint choked back a laugh as he watched the girl. Ever since they landed on Asgard Clint had become silent and moody. Natasha even held his hand as they walked towards the castle.

“I knew her parents,” Thor said sadly. “They both died when the Dark Elves attacked for the Aether.”  
  
That was one of the Infinity Stones. She wondered how many lives it had taken. Peggy didn't understand why they were called Dark Elves though. Were there Light Elves? With the way her week was going, probably. This was absurd. A palace made of gold with princes and kings and little peasant girls, her life wasn't a bloody fairy tale.

Steve slipped his hand under her cloak and squeezed her hand. They began following Lady Airvoi again, their mood sobered after finding out about Lady Kria's parents.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *posts this on monday at nine after saying i wasn't going to post the next chapter until friday* basically that means that you guys get to benefit from my shitty day:)   
> I hope you enjoy this. Btw I'm estimating this to have about twenty five chapters, im almost finished with my editing though the last six thousand words or so may be changed for canon compliance.  
> Originally, this chapter was combined with the next two. That's why the transitions are awkward and not as smooth flowing as I had hoped. The language in this is Norwegian according to google translate. 'Hva?' should mean 'what?' and the other sentence should mean, 'aye! That is my doll. Thank you!" please let me know if i miss used any of it.
> 
> AND IF YOU HAVE ANY PROMPTS MY TUMBLR IS: themundanedidit (i can't find anything on how to link text in authors notes so sorry about that.)


	7. Chapter 7

 

Peggy froze when they walked into the castle. Its large gold columns had collapsed and several armored warriors were working on repairing them. Thor veered off to the side, down one of the many long corridors. He barely paused to let them marvel at how everything was just _so_ gold.

Thor turned around and walked backwards, he grinned childishly at them. On Earth he always seemed out of place, holding himself back slightly, always refrained. He nearly ran into a servant. The man stared at Thor in surprise. He bowed slightly and quickly scurried away. Thor frowned apolitically.

Lady Airvoi stepped forwards, clearing her throat to get the attention back on her. “You are to bow upon getting to the stairs leading to All-Father's throne. Please to not say anything regarding Frigga or Loki. He is quite sensitive to those issues. If you say anything rude I cannot vouch for your safety.”

The room stilled. Even Thor seemed worried about these rules. Steve and Peggy exchanged a glance and she had a feeling that Clint and Natasha did too.

“These are new rules,” Thor commented.

He moved forwards, pushing open the large golden doors. Peggy hadn't even noticed they arrived at the throne room yet. Thor shot a pleading look to Clint as they entered the room.

There on the throne sat an old man, he was spread out comfortably. Though he glared at them with his one eye. This was the one time Peggy ever felt nervous under someone's gaze. Lady Airvoi had instructed them to bow at the stairs. There were a lot of them leading up to the throne. Peggy wondered if the reason why the All-Father sat on the throne all day was because if he walked down the stairs he might fall and break his hip. She paused midstep, wondering if aliens could read minds. That was probably offensive. She wasn't in the mood to be tossed into jail, so she started reciting a nursery ryhme in her head. She hoped the All-father had been focused on Steve or his own son.

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards. It was one of the strangest things she had ever seen. Why did they let a creep like this rule Asgard?

Oh, they were at the stairs now. She hadn't even noticed. Clint seemed in a daze as well, Natasha had to grab his arm and yank him down into the bow. Peggy bowed. And so did Steve. His was smooth and graceful. He was the only one who didn't seem terrified of All-Father and the rules.

“Father,” Thor bowed.

That must have been horrible, having to bow down to your father every moment you saw him. Peggy was glad her dad wasn't king of anything besides that bloody bridge club.

“Thor,” All-Father said, his voice was cold. “We have many things to discuss at the moment. I would love to meet with your friends at dinner tonight.”

It was something about the way he said _friends_ that scared Peggy. She shivered, glad the bulky cloak hid her movement. She was pretty sure Clint turned pale.

“We do not have time for that if it is an Infinity Stone.”  
  
The All-Father grimaced. “Xandar has one. They have been doing a much better job with keeping up with Infinity Stones. I recommend visiting the Nova Corps. I shall supply you with credits and tomorrow morning you shall depart.”  
  
Thor seemed disappointed his father was sending him away like this, but he nodded and spun around. His bottom lip jutted out slightly, like a toddler. His cape bellowed out behind him as he walked over to them. She heard the doors slam closed behind them. Thor looked up, opening and closing his mouth. A large grin appeared on his face. He brushed pass them, patting Clint lightly on the shoulder.

“Thor,” said a deep voice.

She turned around, casting a glance over her shoulder at the king before focusing on the woman in front of her. She wore armor very similar to Thor's, her brown hair fell around her shoulders. There was a look in her eyes as she regarded Thor. Peggy recognized that look from some of the woman who had looked at Captain America over the years. It was a mixture of lust and love, unrequited of course. Peggy knew Thor had someone on Earth he loved. He called her on the phone during every breakfast.

“Lady Sif!” Thor exclaimed happily. He wrapped his arms around her in a giant hug. Sif frowned slightly when her face was hidden from his view.

“It is quite a surprise to see you again. I visited Midgard recently due to Lorelei escaping the prisons,” she said. Her voice was low as she tried to prevent the Midgardians from hearing her. “Shield helped.”

Thor nodded grimly. He turned to Lady Airvoi. “Please lead my friends to their rooms. I have many things to discuss with Lady Sif.”

Lady Airvoi nodded, her head bobbing up and down. She spun around with a swish of her skirts and opened the door, impatiently waiting for them to follow. Peggy took one last glance over her shoulder to see Lady Sif guiding Thor out of the room. Lady Sif glanced up at Odin nervously.

Next to her, Clint seemed to be fuming as they were led down the halls. She wasn't in the mood to try and get information out of him and she knew Natasha would be smart enough to shut it down before Peggy learned anything. Steve grabbed her hand, squeezing it slightly. Peggy didn't look up at him, she was too busy trying to memorize the path they used. She figured that if they had to make an escape, Asgard was probably big enough to hide on for at least a few weeks.

There were two doors side by side. Lady Airvoi practically shoved Peggy and Steve into the first one and slammed the door. She heard the door on the other side of the wall slam too. That meant the walls were thin. Steve could probably easily punch a hole in it for them to escape. Peggy's eyes were scanning the room, her brain going into overdrive as she looked for exits. They were in a small sitting room, a couch in the middle of the room and several paintings of people Peggy would assume were Asgard royalty given that there was one of Thor and a dark-haired man Peggy didn't recognize. They were both staring at the painting, seeming to be upset they had to do this. Steve stared at that one, he paced in front of it, never taking his eyes off the portrait.

“Their eyes follow you around the room,” Steve commented. He took off his cloak, throwing it on the couch. He dropped his shield next to that. He reached in his pocket, taking out his phone and snapping a picture. He looked back at Peggy and jokingly frowned. “There's no signal. How's that supposed to haunt Tony while we're away?”

Peggy laughed, a piece of hair falling in her face. She preferred the styles of the forties where she could at least pull her mess of hair back. “I doubt we'd be able to take it down. We'd be tried for treason and thrown into the Asgard version of prison.”

Steve laughed loudly and paused when there was a banging noise on the wall and a muffled, “s _hut up!_ ”

Someone knocked on the door and Peggy froze, wondering if it was an angry Clint or someone else. She grabbed her purse, reaching inside to make sure the Stone was still there. She reached around until she felt the handle of her gun. Steve crept over to the door and swung it open slowly. He stepped backwards, nearly bringing his fist into the first servant's head.

The first one screeched, running a hand through his blonde hair as if that concerned him more than Steve's strengh. The girl behind him burst out laughing. She doubled over, her hands on her knees. Peggy thought she was crying for a moment.

“ _Shut up!”_ Clint shouted from across the wall. Both of the servants fell silent and straightened to their full heights.

The girl stepped forwards, clearing her throat and pulling out a piece of paper. “We have been tasked with outfitting you for the feast tonight.”

“Are you having a feast to celebrate us?” Steve asked in a mixture of surprise and confusion.

Both of them laughed lightly. “There are feasts every night!” Said the girl.

“Aye!” The man grinned in agreement.

Peggy would be extremely grateful if Clint would tell them to shut up again. Steve swung the door shut behind them. The two twittered. The girl grabbed Peggy's arm and pulled out a platform from under the couch. Hesitantly, Peggy stepped on it and the girl began measuring her. She glanced over and saw Steve going through the same thing, though his man seemed to be cooing at him.

The girl began blabbering on about colors Peggy liked and thought would look good on her. Peggy managed to keep up and strike a conversation with her. After her shopping trip with Natasha and Pepper, Peggy learned more about the new fashions and she felt confident enough to fake it.

Steve looked helplessly lost as he gazed across the floor to where Peggy was. She smiled at him, though her heart sank when the girl brought out fabric swatches. At the end they decided that they would do complementing colors because they had some how decided Peggy and Steve were married. They hadn't bothered to set them straight.

The girl pulled out a long needle with something dark inside it. Peggy's eyes widened and she grabbed her seamstress' wrist. The girl laughed and shook her head. “It's a translator, so when you visit Xandar tomorrow you may understand what they say.”

And then she moved quickly and pinned Peggy's arms to her side with one arm and Peggy was surprised by the girl's strength enough to give her time to inject the translator. Peggy raised a hand to her neck, surprised at how little it hurt. She looked back at Steve and he sighed heavily when he met her eyes, there was a red spot on his neck. The girl smiled anthropologically and brushed Peggy's hair in front of her ear to hide the injection site.

Finally, after what felt another hour, the girl and man went over to Natasha and Clint's room. Steve tapped a warning on the wall with Morse Code. He turned around to face Peggy. He breathed a sign of relief and crossed the floor to reach her. He hugged her gently, he dug his face into her shoulder.

“That was a lot. Thor is a tame Asgardian,” he said.

“Really?” Peggy playfully mocked. “I had quite a conversation about the slight color differences between Earth and Asgard red.”  
  
“Seriously? Mine told me if I touched his hair he'd kill me,” Steve said

They both grinned at each other. Steve glanced down at her lips and took a step forwards. Of course then Clint barged in with Natasha on his tail. She grabbed at his arm and stopped when she realized Peggy and Steve were so close. Natasha glared at Clint. Peggy took a step back from Steve and glanced away.

“That was horrible,” Clint muttered, slamming the door closed behind them.

 

Natasha nodded in agreement. She walked over to the couch and flopped back on it, throwing her arm over the side of the couch. Clint walked over and sat down next to her. There was just barely enough room for the two of them. In a moment Natasha's breathed had slowed and Clint smiled gently at her and burried his face in her neck.

 

Steve frowned, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He walked over to the door that led outside and opened it. He grabbed his shield and hid it under the traveling cloak he had just thrown on.

 

“Shall we go, Lady Peggy?” Steve whispered jokingly. He extended his arm to her. Peggy grabbed her cloak and tossed it on quickly. She looped her arm through Steve's and his smile at her was breath taking.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so the reason why Clint told them to shut up a lot during this chapter is because he probably turned the volume of his (StarkTech) hearing aids up as loud as they could go since he would probably be paranoid of Asgard. 
> 
> ANd guess what!! I finally figured out how to add links to the notes (oh i hope this works and I didn't just make a fool of myself). 
> 
> Follow my [tumblr](http://themundanedidit.tumblr.com/) and feel free to leave any prompts or to just say hi. I'd love the extra practice with writing! I already have a Natasha and Peggy sparring thing that I plan to post soon and a drabble for that fanworks thing on 2/15. 
> 
> and if you want to learn how to add links in the authors notes then go [here](http://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_a_href.asp)
> 
> if you have any headcanons about Peggy carter or really anyone from Welcome to Nightvale (im about to start episode 19) to well, uh Silence of the Lambs, please leave them below!


	8. Chapter 8

They walked out of the room, Steve closed the door slowly as to avoid waking the spies. He mentioned that Clint was death but Tony had made him hearing aids and that helped restore some of his hearing. He apparently relied on Natasha for the other twelve percent he couldn't hear. Peggy nodded, she couldn't help but notice that if they were in a fight and she managed to blind him, then she would have the advantage. 

The castle was magnificent and they spent several minutes trying to not get lost and memorize their way back to the rooms. They talked quietly due to the fact that everything echoed in the main halls and Peggy preferred to not be overheard. 

There weren't a lot of people around, Peggy noticed, once in a while they would run across a servant or two. The servants didn't usually say much, they would duck their heads and scurry away. Peggy assumed it was because they thought Steve and her were royalty from somewhere else. At one point one servant had came up and suggested they visit the library and gave them directions. It turned out they had walked by it three times already. Perhaps it was the same servant they had passed so many times and he had taken pity on them. They always ducked their heads before she could tell and each one had the same dark brown hair.

Steve sucked in a breath at the sheer amount of books. They were on long rows of shelves that were around twelve feet tall. It was surprisingly dark in the library, with no windows only the occasional candle every few feet. It worried Peggy that someone would brush against one and the entire place would easily go into flames. Steve walked down one of the aisles and dropped Peggy's hand, leaving her behind.

She closed the door behind them before walking through one of the rows. She didn't even bother trying to catch up Steve at this point. She wanted to scan the area and make sure it was just them in the library. In the most distant corner of the room was the only place that looked lived in recently. There wasn't any dust on the shelves in this general area. Most of the books titles had sorcery somewhere in the title. There was a small armchair in the corner with a green blanket on it. There was a small flower on it, almost as if was a memorial.

Slowly, she crept around the chair, careful to not trip any alarms. There was one book sticking out farther than the rest. She pulled it back, expecting a secret door to open like in the movies Tony had showed her. Instead, a smaller book was hidden behind it. It looked like gibberish for a moment as her chip translated it. After that all she could see was the faintest hint of the letter, _L_.

She carefully slide it out from behind the other books. She wouldn't let her hands go anywhere near her face in case it was laced with some sort of powdery poison. Though she doubted it, she had a feeling no one really bothered to come in the library. Whoever hid this here probably figured it would be safe.

The books nearly fell out of her hands and she caught it in midair. The book opened to a random page. It was the neatest cursive Peggy had ever seen. It stretched across the page in a way that made Peggy blankly want to stare at it for a while. It took even longer for her chip to translate this. Everything else had been quick and sudden to the point where it threatened to give her a headache with the random language changes.

It was a long paragraph talking about Thor, Lady Sif and three other names she didn't recognize. The first bit contained the plans of what seemed to be a prank. There were several lines of something that belonged in one of those sorcery books, it involved illusions. The rest detailed in how the five had taken it. It was boring, nothing of importance so Peggy flipped the pages, skimming it until the handwriting started to become sloppy. 

_He lied to me. Everything I was put through, my years growing up in an entire castle full of fake friends. Fake family. How many other people knew? Perhaps this is why so many disliked me..._

Peggy paused at the emotion scratched on this page. The pen had even ripped one part of the page as whoever wrote this clawed away at it. There was one final page in the book. On the very last line.

_T H A N O S_

The words were dragged along the paper. It seemed like that one word had physically pained the person to write. 

What was a Thanos? She flipped through the pages one last time to see if she missed something. There was nothing else. Peggy glanced up, preparing to set the book on the shelf. She caught a glimpse of someone leaning against the shelve, silently watching her. He was tall, skinny and practically blended in with the wood he was standing next to. For a moment Peggy thought she had imagined him. Or at least until he spoke.

“You shouldn't read things that don't belong to you,” he said, his voice was low and hoarse. 

She set the book back where it was, leaving her hand on the larger book that had hidden it.

“And it's yours?” She asked.

The corner of his mouth cruelly twitched upwards. She repressed a shiver that tried to go up her spin. There was something about this man that was much worse than the villains the SSR fought. She felt the room drop in temperature. She was glad she had the heavy traveling cloak on. 

“Why you don't recognize me?” He stepped out of the shadows.

Peggy frowned, she couldn't place him. He seemed like the boy who was in the picture with Thor. That would mean he was royalty. Did Lady Airvoi mention him? He seemed disappointed that Peggy didn't back away with fear and start begging him for her life.

“I'm Loki,” he sighed deeply, “of, well not Asgard anymore.”

That name meant nothing to her. He seemed to realize it too. She said nothing. 

“Are you not the Captain's Peggy Carter?” He asked. Loki appeared in front of her, gripping both of her arms with his hands. She grabbed the book and prepared to hit him in the head. “Relax, Carter. I mean you nor your lover no harm.”

His eyes glinted dangerously, despite his attempt at calming words. Peggy leaned away, his breath was stale and hot on her face. Something flickered in Loki's face and he stepped away from Peggy, mockingly raising his hands in the air as if to surrender. Peggy stood her ground and stared at him, she waited for him to say something, but he didn't seem willing to speak.

“That's your book? What's Thanos and what did it do to you?” She asked.

The amused smile on Loki's face disappeared and Peggy became nervous. Loki took a deep breath and he made his hand into a fist, squeezing it tightly. Just the mention of the word Thanos seemed to upset him.

“I suppose that is one way you could think of it,” and then he learned forwards again, this time more urgently. “I made a deal with a Titan called Thanos because I wanted to rule Asgard. He said Midgard was the first step. He required the Tesseract and if I brought it back to him, then I would earn my rightful place as king of Asgard. He gave me the only other gem he had as an aid and a way to sweeten the deal, as you say on Midgard. It was stolen from me by Hydra after the Avengers managed to defeat me. I was to remain in prison for the rest of my life. That would be over three thousand in Earth years, Carter. Thor brought me out when he needed something and I faked my death in fear of Thanos. I'm in hiding on Asgard. Thanos wants to destroy the universe and only a select few of his choice will be fine. He'll make anyone who crossed him wish they were dead. That'd be me, you, your precious Captain would wish he had never been thawed out. Thanos is aware you have it. He's sent someone after you already.”

“Hydra?” Peggy echoed. They had died out. Steve had made sure of it. She had made sure of it. 

Loki smiled grimly and shook his head, his frizzy black curls flew everywhere. “Your good Captain hasn't been the most truthful.”

She was surprised at that. She realized that perhaps she had superimposed the good, clean, truthful image of Captain America over Steve, the boy from Brooklyn who couldn't stay out of a fight. She'd grill Steve later about it. 

“Why are you telling me all this? It doesn't exactly seem like an ice breaker.” 

Peggy felt Loki press something cold in her hand. Just touching it made her want to throw up. It was a knife in a sheath. It had green and gold runes on it, none of these were in her large book of symbols.

“I want you to kill Thanos. I'm tired of living with fear that someone will notice and turn me in. You have one of the Stones, it's not the most powerful one, but I believe you're resourceful enough to find the others before Thanos. Don't unsheathe the blade until your battle with Thanos. It's coated in a poison I mixed up that I believe can kill Thanos. He's not easy to kill since he courts Death.”

Peggy didn't realize Death was a person. She assumed it was a thing one achieved of old age, or in her case probably one of those idiotic men at the SSR. 

Slowly, Loki stepped away, he tilted his head at her and smiled. “I hope you don't mention seeing me to the Captain. He won't want to go after Thanos with his team if he finds out I talked to you and he'd be most cross with you. Even though it was just one mistake. You have a bounty on your head. I'll offer you a safe place if things go wrong, no strings attached.”

“I don't want your knife if it means betraying Steve,” she said. She wasn't a loyal dog following Steve around, but they seemed to see eye to eye on many things, like Hydra, that was always a good example. Loki turned his nose upwards in disgust. 

“Just keep it. I'll even take my symbol off it so he doesn't know it was from me. You can claim it was one of your spy tools.”

The green and gold faded away and the ivory case turned to leather. She stared at him in confusion. She didn't want to lie to Steve. She didn't care about being untruthful to his team, it's just this was Steve. It was hard to explain, but she really liked him. Though she understood that romantic affection never lasted for long and it was something one should never balance their life around. Steve and her had always been her main example, though her coming to the future and Steve not dying changed a lot of things.

“Why'd I travel through time to this year?” Because she wanted to know, this wasn't suppose to happen this way. It had been too good to be true and Thanos coming into her life seemed to be the problem. She could do this, she'd trained with Steve, she had learned several new moves. She had to protect the universe. That was more important than a boyfriend.

“I don't know,” Loki admitted. “Perhaps Thanos sent out a signal.” 

He eyed the phone number on Peggy's wrist. She hid it quickly, not knowing why she did. Loki looked like he was about to say something, though someone called out Peggy's name and Loki looked panicked and disappeared into mid air. 

“I'll be seeing you again,” He whispered. 

Peggy spun around to see Steve rounding the corner. He looked worried, though when he saw her his face lit up. There was no way he'd be lying to her. She hoped. She could get information out of him easily, she always had been able to. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked. He glanced around and saw the green blanket and memorial for Loki. He frowned sadly and then noticed the dagger in Peggy's hand. “What's that?”

“I'm fine, Steve,” She forced a fake laugh as she crossed the floor. She leaned against him, taking a deep breath as she decided what to tell him. “It's a knife Howard made me. I thought I heard something and didn't want to upset the All-Father by hitting him with one of the books. Lady Airvoi gave us a long list of rules to follow and harming property was on it.”

Steve nodded and leaned his head head against Peggy. “I think I spent a little too much time reading about the Infinity Stones. Nat and Clint are probably mad at us for leaving while they were sleeping.”

He wrapped his hand around hers and together they walked out of the library. She didn't look back, though she knew Loki was watching them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could have waited until after Agent Carter to post this, but I'm getting nervous for what's going to happen so I decided to go ahead and update now. Thank you to everyone who's commented on my fanfiction so far! I love hearing what you have to say about it!:) Like always, if you have any feedback or prompts please let me know!:D


	9. Chapter 9

The feast involved a lot of drinking, Peggy and Natasha were the only ones who didn't even have a sip of Asgardian ale. She feared Steve was having a little too much to drink, so she had placed a hand on his arm and made a comment about slowing down. He obeyed. Clint seemed to be drunk after only one drink. Steve simply seemed extremely tipsy. If he passed out on the way to the bedroom, then Peggy would leave him there. She had enough of watching Steve carry the Commandos back to camp after nights at the bar. She never wanted to have that job.

Thor was telling a story about his time on Midgard with the Avengers and someone called Doctor Doom. It was a tale about the Doombots and how this set were programmed to match each of the Avengers' skills. It was only by their pure talent that they managed to come together to defeat the primitive technology! The story was much longer than that, it had jokes and over the top story telling. Natasha made faces at part of it, obviously calling bullshit. Thor's friends seemed to be in awe at the strength of mortals.

Peggy tuned them out and she scanned the room full of drunks to make sure none of them posed a threat. Steve had happily told her about the differences between Asgardians and humans after leaving the library. It basically seemed like they had been given a stronger version of the serum, or at least that's how she thought of it. 

She caught the All-Father's eye. Were you supossed to do that? She didn't really care. Odin's mouth twitched upwards and he winked at her. And then his face was back to Thor, watching him with a tired smile like a father would. She glanced around to see if anyone else saw him. His smirk had borderlined evil and mischievous. It was Loki. He was hidden in plain sight. It was a good disguise she had to admit. 

Servants brought out at least three wild boars and took away the carcasses of the old ones. She had became full long ago, though Natasha and Steve seemed to be going strong.

It was several more of Thor's ridiculously stories later that Natasha started drinking. She took long sips of it, enough for her to become tipsy as well. Steve had drank a little bit more and his super serum hasn't kicked in to reverse the effects yet. 

Peggy was beginning to think about drinking when Thor spoke up.

"It has been a pleasure sharing this evening with you all!” There was a chorus of clumsy agreement rang out across the hall. “But I fear I must retire for tomorrow my friends and I will visit Xandar!”

There was more shouting as Thor stumbled slightly. He lifted Clint off his chair and laughed as Clint lurched forwards. He held his stomach and groaned heavily. “I think this is how I'm going die. But this was worth it.”

Everyone roared with laughter. Peggy took one sip of her mead and wrinkled her nose in disgust. She preferred schnapps to this. She extended her hand to help Steve up, he took it gratefully and used it to help steady him. He waved goodbye to everyone. Natasha seemed perfectly fine. She had drank just as much as Clint in a shorter amount of time. Thor's eyes widened in surprise.

“I'm Russian. I hold my alcohol,” she frowned and walked out of the room, wrapping Clint's arm around her shoulders. 

Steve laughed at her and quickly followed them out of the room. At least he wasn't an asshole when he was drunk. That made Peggy happy. She should have let him drink a little more to get information out of him. She didn't look at Odin/Loki as she followed Thor out of the room. She wouldn't snitch on him until given a reason. 

Steve tossed off his Asgardian armor the seamstress had given them. His had been red and hers blue. They based it off of his shield without knowing any back story. For a moment Peggy thought he was going to completely undress. She shoved the silk pajamas at him and he put them on. Peggy turned away when he slide the pants off and exchanged them for another pair. She glanced up at the painting of Loki and Thor, they both seemed so proud.

Her focus was on Steve again as she led him through the double doors that led to the bedroom section of the room. It was then she noticed the tears in his eyes. Oh no, he was a sad drunk. She put him to bed, tucking him in and walked over to the doors, preparing to go sleep on the couch.

“Peggy,” He whispered so softly that Peggy nearly didn't hear him. She froze turning around. “Can you stay? Please...”

She walked over to him, sitting on the opposite side of the bed, he sat up and Peggy leaned forwards, pushing his head back on the pillow.

“All our friends are dead.”

That hung in the air for several minutes. Peggy hadn't thought about it that way and he was right. She leaned next to him, stroking his hair gently. He leaned into her touch, sighing deeply.

“I suppose you're right. Though we're together now.”

It was a ridiculously sappy thing to say and she was glad there was only a single candle in the room that hid Peggy's face flushing a deep red color. It seemed to please Steve though as he closed his eyes, a small smile on his face.

He blindly pushed up the covers, tucking them over Peggy. She hadn't gotten changed yet and didn't want to sleep with breast plate armor on. “I'll be right back, Steve. I won't leave you this time.”

She hadn't been the one to leave him the first time, but she didn't want to upset him and have a crying man on her hands. She wasn't equipped to do this and didn't want to mother her boyfriend. She assumed they were dating, they hadn't talked about titles. She threw on her nightgown, barely wasting a second before she slide back into the bed beside him. It was different than the first night where they had fallen asleep that New Year's Eve due to pure stress and exhaustion. This was a choice and she should really leave his drunk ass alone, she would have done that for any other man, actually she wouldn't have even comforted someone else. She would have left them alone at the bar to fend for themselves, it not her fault they got drunk. But this was Steve and she seemed to be using the Steve excuse a lot lately. She shouldn't be so reliant on him, if something happened to either one of them when she killed Thanos then the other would be devastated.

Steve's entire face lit up when she slide into bed. 

_He's lying to you,_ Loki's words echoed through her head.

She didn't know if she could believe him. Loki was a demon with his dark hair and twisted truth while Steve was the angel with his halo of blonde hair and sweet smiles. She knew what Steve was capable of, perhaps an angel metaphor wasn't her best idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I have posted this yesterday? yes. Could I have posted this yesterday? Probably. But I was busy and sad so I didn't. Enjoy this day late (basically filler) chapter. I probably should not even be posting this now because I got like four hours of sleep last night and I don't do well with stress and lack of sleep, so if they're any typos please let me know. (and if the html coding looks okay because I'm shit at this) and now i have to hurry and go over to this girl's house and i feel so tired omg.


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